Miral, the developer behind Yas Island’s leisure attractions, and experiential event agency BRAG have collaborated to create Club Social – a platform that celebrates the ‘social’ in social media through a new destination and meet-up concept.

The first edition of Club Social, scheduled to take place from April 27-28, will focus on food. It will deliver a full weekend’s worth of dining, lounging, sunning, snapping and posting on Yas Island. In a waterfront, interactive and picture-perfect space, Club Social encourages the UAE’s residents and visitors to discover new food offerings while they click, chat and post.

The two-day event will bring together food lovers and foodie content creators through more than 15 kinds of food experiences, live cooking stations & workshops, beach retail and sports, performances, an outdoor beach cinema and a moveable feast of post-worthy backdrops.

“Through delivering some of the region’s most memorable community events, BRAG understands that half of the success of any destination or occasion is its presence on social media. Club Social enables us to create a new platform on Yas Island that is relevant for today’s social age – bringing the online community together in a fun, engaging real-time space for a weekend, celebrating quality content creators while poking light-hearted fun at some of the clichés found on social platforms,” says Ramzi Nakad, co-founder of BRAG.

Club Social is the tangible connecting and mingling solution for the offline disconnect that millennial consumers, who spend on average at least two hours per day on social media, experience as a bi-product of their online habits, as well as a reflection of the UAE’s growing social media community.

In selecting food as the first of Club Social’s themes, research shows that food-related posts make up a quarter of all social media activity, with 69% of millennials sharing photos or videos of food via their social channels, demonstrating the demand for new food experiences that lend themselves to sharing online.

BRAG has previously managed a number of the UAE’s high-profile events since 2010, including Rise Dubai Creek Harbour by Emaar, Fashion Forward, the Dubai Food Festival’s Beach Canteen and Sole DXB. Social media coverage has been a key factor in driving awareness of and attendance for these activations, which contributed to the thought process behind the creation of Club Social, BRAG’s first foray into Abu Dhabi.

“As Abu Dhabi’s playground from both adults and families, Yas Island is the ideal home for the new Club Social concept, and we’re looking forward to welcoming our frequent visitors and nearby residents as well as new guests to discover the latest food offerings at the first Club Social edition,” adds Gerardo Llanes, executive director, destination management for Miral.